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| Photo taken from Southwestern Bell Building, looking northwest. |
It took seven seconds for the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building - the city's symbol of tragedy since it was bombed April 19 - to fall into a pile of rubble.
The demolition of the building where 167 lives were lost came at 7:01 a.m. Tuesday.
Photographers from The Oklahoman took the pictures on these two pages from 10 different locations, showing the remains of the building as explosive charges blew out the support columns, and the building collapsed on itself.
Those who watched expressed many different emotions as they remembered the nation's worst terrorist attack.
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| Photo taken by remote camera from Journal Record Building, looking south. |
Rich Barnard, a senior at Moore High School, had a final examination at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, but he was at NW 5 and Broadway earlier with several classmates. "We need to show the bomber that we're starting over, and we're going to be better," he said.
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| Photo taken from Bank of Oklahoma Building, looking north. |
Cherilyn Walden was downtown with relatives Tuesday morning. "I don't know why we're down here. We're all running around aimlessly. It's like we're looking for something, we just don't know what.
"It doesn't even seem real to me that it ever happened," Walden said of the April 19 bombing. "And now that the building' gone, it's like it never happened."
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| Michelle Meek is comforted Tuesday by Cherilyn Walden after the implosion of the remains of the federal building. Meeks' mother died in the April 19 blast. |
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| Photo taken from Regency Tower, looking east. |
Amanda Sutton, 19, drove in Monday night from Tulsa with her 2-year-old son, Zachary, to witness the demolition. "I've watched it ever since it happened," Sutton said of the April 19 explosion and its aftermath. "You can't help but think of all those poor people who were in there."
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| Photo taken from Southwestern Bell Building, looking northwest. |
"I'm glad it's gone. It was terrifying to see it come down. But I can't imagine what it was like the day that it happened," said Barbara Duggan, 59, of Oklahoma City.
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| Photo taken from Regency Tower, looking east. |
David Parrett, an investigator in the Oklahoma County district attorney's office, said he originally didn't want to view the implosion firsthand, but felt compelled to go.
Parrett said he was familiar with the building because several of his friends worked there and his son, Brett, 4, had attended the second-floor day care center there a year ago. "You remember the way things were before the bombing, especially the kids. I'd pull up my car beside the building when I picked up my son and you could see the kids in the day care with their faces and hands against the window," Parrett said.
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| Photo taken from Southwestern Bell Building, looking northwest. |
Staff Photos by George R. Wilson, Jim Argo, Steve Sisney, David McDaniel, Roger Klock and Mike Simons.
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